We often come across businesses who want an end-to-end solution to their FORS Bronze or Silver accreditation – to which our answer is simple.
We can help you get FORS accreditation but you can only keep it by embedding it within your organisation i.e. making people within your organisation responsible for your ongoing FORS compliance and doing the things you said you committed to in your policies and procedures when you said you would.
M3 – Responsible Person and M4 – Staff Resources are placed early within the FORS Standard V5 for a reason, they are key decisions organisations need to make.
M3 -Responsible Person
As an Standard Operator Licence holder you may feel you have this covered but has your Transport Manager completed any Refresher Training or recorded Continuous Professional Development in the past 5 years.
As a Restricted Licence Holder or Light Goods Fleet operator has your Responsible Person received any training for the role or were they simply appointed to the role on the basis of a CV and interview.
The requirement is now for FORS Approved Fleet Management Training to be completed
M4 Staff Resources
Does the Responsible Person (or Persons) have a Job Description which details, among other things their responsibilities for FORS Compliance
Does your Organisation Chart; –
identify the following roles,
- Person with overall responsibility for Health and Safety
- Person with Continuous and Effective Control over Fleet Operations
- Fuel and Emissions Champion**
- Road Risk Champion**
- Counter Terrorism Champion**
identify the links between Drivers, Managers and Directors within the organisation
** if these are allocated to someone other than the Fleet Manager on what basis where they allocated and have those people completed any training for that role
The phrase ‘Continuous and Effective Control’ in familiar to qualified Transport Managers, less so to restricted Licence Holders and not at all to many light goods Fleet Managers
Also under M4, organisations SHALL demonstrate the recruitment and selection procedure for Drivers and Fleet related staff, something which is not identified as a documented requirement under M1 FORS Documentation
Over the next few weeks we are going to explore all aspects of the FORS Standard and what it means for organisations
If you think we could help get you through the FORS Bronze process or progress through the FORS Silver or Gold levels, and you are prepared to answer more questions than you could ever think of asking please Contact Us